The Baha'i­ International Community, on behalf of the Baha'i­ communities of the South Pacific Region, wishes to express its appreciation to the South Pacific Commission for the invitation to attend this meeting of the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations. We are most grateful for this opportunity to share our ongoing interest in the important area of health and nutrition and to bring you up to date on recent health initiatives undertaken by the Baha'i­ International Community.

Baha'i­s believe that health is more than the absence of disease. In addition to the three widely recognized aspects of health-physical, mental and social well-being-the spiritual dimension of health is also important not only to the life of the individual, but to the life of the family and the community as well. Consequently, Baha'i­ communities strive to address the needs of individuals, families, and the community as a whole in their activities. The role of education in the realization of this harmonious balance among all aspects of life cannot be overemphasized, and the education of women is of particular importance in this process.

Women, as the main agents of primary health care, play an essential role in maintaining family and community health. They are the ones who are most aware of sickness and suffering in the community because of their social role as nurturers and care-takers of the young, the old, the sick and the handicapped, and they exert an important influence on health habits in the family. Although it is often recognized that primary health care has to respond to the needs of people, and that women have the most extensive awareness of these needs, their opinions are rarely solicited when health care programs are being formulated.

In order for communities to benefit from the knowledge which women possess, women have to learn to regard themselves as capable human beings with important contributions to make on the basis of their life experience and their accumulated wealth of knowledge. By training them as voluntary Community Health Workers, Baha'i­ health care professionals are making a conscious effort to enable women to organize and share the information they have acquired. A model training program for these volunteers has been developed and is being adapted for use in communities throughout the world. The training workshops encourage the volunteers, many of whom are women, to use their experience to solve real problems drawn from the daily life of the community.

If this participation of women is to develop, it must extend to all levels and all areas of the health care system. Women must become doctors, nurses, community development agents, educators, agricultural extension workers, public health officials, planners, legislators, politicians. At the same time, women and women's organizations at the grass roots must participate in the decisions affecting individual, family, and community health. Special efforts must be made to organize education and vocational and professional training in such a way that more girls and women can take advantage of them.

Investing in primary health care programmes is believed to provide more benefits at the grass root level than investing in highly trained physicians who practice medicine in clinics and hospitals. It is extremely difficult to bring modern medical care to rural populations. Local Baha'i­ communities, however, are part of a network that is able to mobilize resources from outside their local area. For example, in the Philippines, as a result of grass roots initiative, a Baha'i­ medical team is now providing regular services to the remote Mangyan area of Mindoro, a tribal region never before served by physicians. Undaunted by the rugged terrain, Baha'i­s from several communities in the area supported the team's efforts. They created a relay race to carry an ice chest filled with live vaccine 41 kilometers into the interior. As a result, hundreds of Mangyan children were immunized.

Malnutrition is one of the major public health problems in developing countries. It stems from poverty and ignorance. The family must be helped to learn nutrition habits and must be served by better basic health care. The Baha'i­ community health care workers provide basic nutrition education as a part of their .primary health care services. Promoting breast feeding, teaching mothers to make appropriate weaning food utilizing locally available food, and training them to make oral rehydration solutions, form part of the basic nutrition education that is being carried out by the Baha'i­ community health care workers. Malnutrition is often both a result and a cause of social and economic under-development. Therefore nutrition and health care activities should be fully integrated with the activities of other sectors involved in community development.

To support local agriculture, one Baha'i­ community in the Philippines has established a cooperative store, a portion of whose profits support an infant who is cared for by the local governing council. When the local population is actively involved in the formulation and implementation of community improvement activities, local priorities will be based on decisions resulting from a continuous dialogue between the people and the services. In Papua New Guinea, just such a dialogue resulted in a collaboration between the Baha'i­ community and a provincial government to reestablish health services in a remote area.

The Baha'i­ International Community continues to expand its focus on primary health care throughout the world and to strengthen its cooperation with both UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Baha'i­ International Community, which has had consultative status with UNICEF since 1976, was granted working relations with WHO in 1989. Collaboration has included participation in the WHO Global Program of Health for All by the Year 2000, which produced the training program for Community Health Workers mentioned earlier, and partnership in the "Facts for Life" education program for parents. Both programmes benefit from the extensive network of Baha'i­ communities and the participatory nature of Baha'i­ community life and the Baha'i­ decision-making process.

"Facts For Life" is a UNICEF/WHO/UNESCO publication designed to make available to all parents and communicators the knowledge which could dramatically improve the health of millions of children in developing countries. The publication was made available to 41 national Baha'i­ councils, including the councils of Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, for use in their local communities and is being used extensively by volunteer Community Health Workers.

The Baha'i­ International Community will continue to work toward the improvement of life in our communities. It is our hope that the establishment of the office of the Baha'i­ International Community for the South Pacific Region in Suva, Fiji, will create more opportunities for cooperation in this important area.